


The Alchemy of a New Normal

by Kintatsujo



Category: Kamen Rider OOO
Genre: Alchemy, Ankh Revival Fic, I just need this damn thing out of my system help, I may have gotten carried away, Multi, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rating May Change, eventually there might be an actual plot, like I actually did research for this bastard, lots of alchemy, of some stripe or another anyway, pairings may increase, stupid long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-23
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:45:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1011005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kintatsujo/pseuds/Kintatsujo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At the end of three long years, Eiji makes a breakthrough.</p><p>Three long years for Eiji.  A timeless blur for Ankh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unimportant OC types are generally going to be named after random anime characters because I can't be bothered to come up with believable names.
> 
> All continuity outside the series itself is just completely ignored, because time travel makes my head hurt (seriously.)

"So if he's some sort of specialist, what, exactly...?" Akamatsu-san looked over his shoulder at the figure in the white shawl, eyeing the underwear tied to his walking stick like a lurid flag.

Nakata shrugged. "According to Kanzaki, he's directly from the Kougami Foundation." He chuckled. "Probably makes him some kind of alchemist. It would explain the underwear, probably."

Akamatsu-san watched the young man spear his walking stick into the ground just outside the site, and stroked his mustache. "Alchemy," he muttered. "A load of crazy, if you ask me."

"Nobody did, Akamatsu," Kanzaki said loudly, earning herself a jump and spin. "You are to treat Hino-san with the utmost respect. He is, in fact, the reason we're even here." She quirked one eyebrow, as if to add "getting paid."

"That grinning boy?" Akamatsu-san asked quietly. "You're kidding."

"Hello!" the grinning boy said, as if on cue. "Kanzaki-san, are we ready to start?"

"Very nearly," Kanzaki said, bowing slightly. "Hino-san, this is Akamatsu, the foreman here."

"Ah!" Hino grinned again and bowed sloppily. "So very nice to meet you, Akamatsu-san. Thank you for all your hard work!"

"Hm," Akamatsu answered. Kanzaki's mouth quirked and she elbowed him in the side. "Good to meet you as well, Hino-san," he added, shooting her a dirty look.

Hino hesitated, smiling at everyone in turn, as if taking them in, then said, "Well! Shall we get started?"

"Right," Akamatsu said, mustache bristling. He turned and gestured their guest forward. "We're not exactly sure what we've dug up here; Nakata thinks it's some sort of tomb, probably."

It was built boxy and low, with a door on one of the short ends bearing the only decoration; circular symbols and some kind of writing set in a swirling pattern. Before they'd begun to dig, it had been buried in the side of a hill; so far they hadn't found the bottom of the foundation and had been forced to leave an earthen bridge from the edge of the pit to the door.

"We haven't been able to scratch the door, Hino-san," Kanzaki explained as Hino approached it. "And cutting into the walls presents the risk of damaging something inside."

Hino's hands ran over the symbols. They were hands that had seen work, the knuckles slightly red and chapped, the fingers calloused and the nails short. "This is a hermetic sealing," he said. "A fairly complex one. You see how the writing has been arranged in a whirlpool pattern? That pattern is actually based on a rune from the  _futhark._ "

"I honestly have no idea what a foo-thark is, Hino-san," Akamatsu retorted. Kanzaki glared at him, but Hino just grinned.

"The writing itself seems to be some sort of code modified from Kemet heiratic," Hino continued. "These other symbols-" he pointed to a few of the circular pictographs, "look like they're mostly of animals used to represent different elemental forces and substances. I don't know if it's a tomb or a laboratory, though it could be both, but this is definitely the work of a skilled alchemist, intended to keep interlopers out."

"So how do we get through?" Kanzaki asked.

Hino stood back and contemplated the entire design, hand to chin. "Looks like there was a key," he said absently. "You see that blank spot in the center of the wheel?"

They looked. Akamatsu had never made note of it before, but there _was_ such a spot, a voided triangle pointing to the sky.

"It's in the shape of an alchemical symbol for fire," Hino said quietly, sliding a hand into his pocket. "That could mean any number of things. I may have to write the correct symbol according to the animals the seal is using. The answer could be in the writing, or I might have to find a ruby and have it cut to the proper shape. There are many possibilities."

He nodded, once, sharply. "I'll have to do a bit of reading."

=o=

"I hope you aren't pushing yourself too hard, Eiji-kun," Hina said. She was working on the other end just the same as he was, although she was probably drawing something for her boss instead of marking down page numbers.

Eiji smiled at the screen. "Don't worry, Hina-chan. This new find looks really promising; if I can decipher any notes this particular alchemist left behind I just might find our answer." He put a hand over Ankh's broken halves, sitting on the edge of the laptop. _Wait just a little longer._

"But are you even sure you'll be able to get into his tomb?" Hina asked, her pen slowing to a stop.

Eiji looked down at his notes thoughtfully. Several high-res photographs were scattered across the desk, showing the alchemist's seal.

"I think I may already have," Eiji muttered. "I'll call again soon, Hina-chan."

"Just remember that you promised to come back to Japan if you do find a way to revive him," Hina said pointedly.

"Of course," Eiji agreed. "Ankh deserves to wake up surrounded only by the people who love him." He said a farewell, then shut the laptop.

Eiji looked over his shoulder, out the tent flap. Kanzaki-san had insisted on his having one; he was fortunate she hadn't forced him into a full trailer like some of the other people he'd worked with had done. Oh, good, Akamatsu's lights were still on.

He stood, brushing the crumbs of dinner from his cargo pants and sliding Ankh's medal back into his pocket, and walked out the tent and across the camp. By the sounds within, Akamatsu was watching some late night game show. Eiji knocked, then waited politely.

Akamatsu didn't seem all that pleased to see him, but didn't say anything, just stood at the threshold with light coming over his shoulders.

"Sorry to bother you, Akamatsu-san," Eiji said with a smile. "Do you have a lighter I can borrow? There's something I want to try."

"You'd better wake Kanzaki up for this," Akamatsu said as he turned to open a cupboard. "And do you have to do this _now?_ "

_It's been three years. He's waited long enough._

"I'd like to, yes," Eiji said.

Kanzaki didn't bother dressing, but she apparently slept in workout clothes so it didn't especially matter, aside from the fact that it was a little incongruous accompanied by heavy workman's boots. "What exactly did you find?" she asked. "A symbol of an animal?"

"The alchemist's name," Eiji said. They were standing by the door, Eiji holding a long nail in one gloved hand while he heated the tip with Akamatsu's lighter. He leaned in against the door and began writing with the nail. The tip left little trails of light. "She went by... Florere... Ignis," he said, finishing the last line.

"The alchemist who put all this together was a _woman?_ " Akamatsu asked, but Eiji ignored, him, stepping back. He'd written her private name in the script she'd used to code the door. It wasn't a poor guess; even brilliant alchemists didn't necessarly have the best passwords.

The glow faded, as though sinking into the triangle, then, with a soft sound, the triangle itself sank back into the door. Akamatsu cried out behind him. The symbols on the door began to spin counterclockwise, and then the door split down the center, pulling away to the sides.

"I can't say I expected _that_ ," Kanzaki said.

Eiji pulled out a flashlight. "Stay close."

"Wait, wait, you're going in _now?_ " Akamatsu demanded, as Eiji edged forward into the black void beyond the door. "It's nearly midnight!"

"Mmhm," Eiji agreed. Kanzaki followed without question, running shorts and all.

It was a laboratory. Shelves lined every wall, long tables broke up the floorspace. "Stay away from those tiles with the symbols on them," Eiji cautioned, pulling his shawl tighter.

This was fantastic. They found notes in the back rooms, books of every kind. Surely he would find something of importance here. If not, well, a find this big would make Kougami-san very noisy indeed.

"Hino-san, come take a look at this," Kanzaki whispered. Eiji picked his way over to where she stood, at the door to one of the back rooms. She gestured in.

The room was largely empty, but at the very back stood what Eiji could only describe as a safe, a boxy stone sarcophagus the wrong shape for a human body, with another sealing on it, this one set in the shape of a cross.

"This was behind a brick in the wall," Kanzaki said, and held up a tiny golden stamp. "You suppose it could be the key?"

Eiji shrugged. "It's worth a try." He took the stamp and looked it over. Like the seal on the door, this one seemed to feature a triangular gap in the center. And the tip of the stamp did seam to fit.

The box _unfolded_ at the stamp's touch, splitting apart like the petals of a flower.

"Can't say I expected that, either," Kanzaki noted, but Eiji was much more interested in the narrow vials revealed from within, each filled at least halfway with a fine, blood red powder.

"It's Philosopher's Stone," he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's possible this first chapter moves too fast but baaaaaaaaaaah.
> 
> Alchemy is fascinating. When I was first researching for this story (about half a year ago at this point) I asked my brother to go through Wikipedia and save articles pertaining to the subject (because he's better at that than I am and, at the time, I had plenty of time to peruse my laptop but limited time in which I could get away with it being connected to the internet.) The reference folder now has over 200 articles in it (although we divided out the tarot, which is also considered related to alchemy) and features everything from Chinese philosophical concepts to Greek astrology.
> 
> One of the things about it is that alchemists often wrote their own codes and used their own private symbol systems, because they were paranoid that someone might crib their notes or figure out what they were up to.
> 
> The first known historical alchemist was a woman known as Maria the Prophetess or Mary the Jewess, which is why our alchemist here is a lady and also because why the hell shouldn't she be, right? "Florere" is the Latin verb "to flower," while "ignis" is a word for fire. I don't know if that's especially poetic, I just slapped them together.
> 
> Fire is the element of changing and transformation, which was my reasoning for why the keyholes would all be in the shape of its symbol.


	2. Chapter 2

"So you really think this sand is the answer?" Hina asked, screwing her face up as she stared at the vial in Eiji's hand.  Shingo was cleaning up in Hina's kitchen-- the siblings didn't live together since Hina's fashion career had taken off, but it seemed like they visited one other often enough that Shingo knew Hina's kitchen as well as his own.

"Absolutely," Eiji said.  "Philosopher's Stone is a vital catalyst in most of the more spectacular alchemical processes.  But most alchemists seemed to burn through theirs before their deaths, and there are no copies of the method used to make it.  So there wasn't much I could do to experiment with any of the theories I've had on how to restore Ankh's core."

Not that he was going to be starting from the ground up.  Florere Ignis had not been the only alchemist over the centuries who had left some notes, some thoughts.  Even at the beginning of this quest, Eiji had access to everything the Kougami Foundation had found about the Greeed, which was enormously important.

"Is there anything you're going to need?"  Hina put a hand on his arm.  Shingo showed up at the door to the living room, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorjam.  

"Alchemical procedures themselves are usually kind of complicated," Eiji started.  "But they don't actually usually require really complicated equipment, especially not something I'd be basing on such old techniques.  And the thing is, I _could_ use the facilities from Kougami Foundation, but if it works..." He looked down, smiling.  "When it works.  I don't want Ankh waking up at the Biological Research Lab.  I'm afraid to ask something like this, you might think I was imposing, but..."

Hina just stared at him, waiting.

Eiji ducked his head with a laugh.  "You have that western-style bathroom next to the bedrooms, right?  I was wondering if I could use it."

=o=

It was not, Eiji knew, a particularly luxurious bathroom by, say, American standards.  He could stretch his arms out on the narrow side, and it was long enough to fit a toilet, a tall cabinet, and a porcelean bathtub with a flat rim.  But it was still small and space-efficient.

The tub was what he needed.  Porcelean was ideal, since it needed to be able to contain the alchemical solution he'd filled the tub with.  Carefully, he set nine candles up along the bathtub's rim, without yet lighting them.

"The liquid is a non-reactive solution," he explained to Hina and Shingo, although he wasn't sure how much they were getting.  "The smoke of the candles, according to my notes, should act as a catalyst once it hits the surface.  The solution itself is made up of components that went into the Greeed medals' original creation."

He turned to the copper box he'd left on the sink counter.  "That will hopefully take care of his lack of a body."  Eiji hesitated, then pulled Ankh's broken core from his pocket.  "And _this_ should heal his core."  He clutched the pieces together, once, putting his knuckles to his lips as he did so.  This would work.  Eiji _needed_ it to work.

With gentle fingers, Eiji gently arranged the medal inside the box, atop the herbs and gold dust he'd lined the bottom with, then, with a breath, poured some sal ammonaic and mercury on opposite sides, so they wouldn't come together right away.  He then scooped out a teaspoon of Philosopher's Stone, gently covering Ankh over with it.

"Hina, look away," he said grimly.  "I need a few drops of blood to pour in the box."  He pulled out his pocketknife.  Hina gasped softly, but didn't look away.

Shingo reached forward and put a hand over his own.  "Let me," he said.  "Something like this is mine to offer him, not yours."

Eiji gave the detective a thoughtful look.  "You're right," he agreed.  "You only need  a little; try to let the drops fall into the Philosopher's Stone.  The blood's supposed to act as an activator."

Shingo took the knife, sliced swiftly across his palm, and made a fist over the box.  The red powder began to fizz gently as the blood hit it.

Eiji put the lid onto the box before too much vapor could escape, then lowered it into the solution in the tub.  Striking a match, he attended to the candles.

"And now?" Hina asked him.  She had already pulled some gauze from the cabinet and was pressing it into Shingo's hand.

"We wait," Eiji told her.  

It was good that Hina could afford a large apartment now, because a single bathroom apartment was bad for alchemical experiments.  They tended to need _time_ , sometimes several days, although the candles would only take several hours to burn down.  

Eiji, Hina and Shingo spent some time catching up, discussing what the others were doing, what they were going to do once they had Ankh back in their lives.  They played several different board games, and Hina shared some of her new fashion concepts.

Hina finally admitted, after some prodding from Shingo, that she had bought two packages of ice pops in case this worked.  "Even if he can't taste the same," she said.  "You don't know whether he'll be able to, right?"

Eiji looked down at the chopsticks he'd folded across his dinner plate.  "No," he admitted.  "At the end, he wasn't like the other Greeed.  And one of the procedures I combined into this experiment was some sort of homunculus repair technique designed by that alchemist who had the Philosopher's Stone-- that was the one that needed some blood.  I have no idea how it might effect Ankh, if it does anything to fix his core at all."

Shingo and Hina shot one another a concerned, sad look.

"Even if this doesn't work, you'll find the answer," Shingo said.

Eiji nodded, then stood to put his plate in the sink.

A sharp yelp sounded from the western-style bathroom.

Eiji almost didn't turn off the faucet as he rushed into the living room, drying his hands on his shirt.  He skidded over the smooth floor in his socks, vaulted the couch and nearly crashed into the door before throwing it open.

A very familiar, very human form was silently trying to get out of the tub, hands slipping on the soot and water that had appeared everywhere.  For some reason he was wet and... naked, and there was a look of urgency on his face.

"Ankh," Eiji said, moving forward.  It seemed too good to be true.  Ankh froze, eyes flitting up and meeting Eiji's, wide and unsure.  

"Eiji?"

Eiji pulled a towel from the cabinet and wrapped it around Ankh's shoulders, helping him out of the tub and pulling him into a tight embrace.

Shingo and Hina were at the door, although Shingo was blushing and covering Hina's eyes with a cloth napkin.

Ankh was shaking, as though from cold.  He leaned into Eiji heavily, gaze darting around the room.

Finally he said, breathlessly, " _You had better not expect my help cleaning all this up._ "

That was when the doorbell rang.  Hina shoved Shingo aside and went to answer it.

Ankh's grip on Eiji's shirt loosened as the blonde head sank heavier into Eiji's shoulder.  Eiji looked down to see that the Greeed was unconscious-- but he was warm, whole, undeniably _alive_.  Shingo got another towel and wrapped it tightly around Ankh's hips.

"Let's get him into the guest room," he said quietly.

Satonaka's voice drifted in from the front door.  "It's an ice cream cake, so put it in the freezer."

_How did Kougami always know?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kougami is probably in his office doing his borderline evil laugh at this point. XD
> 
> In the original version of this fic, it took Eiji three tries instead of just one, and the story actually began with the final scene of this chapter, but since I decided he was building off techniques that other people had already proven to work, it wasn't so hard to buy that one try might work (and anyway the story flow would have suffered with multiple tries.)
> 
> The original concept of this fic was actually entirely built around that final scene; I'm a little annoyed at how awkward it currently feels. But I really just wanted this scene, this reunion, because a lot of fics sort of gloss over that part, and while there's no problem with the way most of them do it, I'm the kind of person who genuinely wants to see that _moment._


	3. Chapter 3

    Ankh opened his eyes cautiously.  He was warm, had been bundled under and into layers of cloth, and to his right there was a large window streaming in sunlight.  There was a pair of boxers hanging from the sill, casting a blue, orange and yellow shadow on the wall.  It was the most beautiful pair of ugly boxers he'd ever seen.

    He sat up.  He was wearing one of Eiji's shirts, which he could tell because it was huge and incredibly hideous, striped in the most incredible shades of green and orange.  Ankh bunched the cloth together in his hands and luxuriously breathed in the scent of what was clearly Hina's detergent preference.

    There wasn't any real difference between being able to smell it now and having been able to smell it when he'd been using Shingo's senses, no real difference in the quality or the scent itself.  But this couldn't be taken from him.  This was _his_.

    Ankh shifted to pull his legs from out of the sheets and carefully put his bare feet onto the floor.  He was a little surprised to hit the small rug there.

    There was a loft bed on the other side of the room.  Ankh stared at it, then got up to inspect it.  Hina had put it together with red blankets.  There was a small folded pile of what was probably Shingo's clothing on the mattress, with a note on top telling Ankh to wear it, "Because you are in Hina's apartment and you will NOT wander around in nothing but a shirt."  It had been signed by both Shingo and Eiji, and Ankh grinned.  It was nice, somehow, knowing they hadn't been _completely_ prepared, because it was more like them.

    It wasn't like the shirt didn't completely cover him, since it was practically a tunic, but Ankh dressed anyway.  He wasn't entirely sure why he didn't just... have clothes, but it didn't particularly matter yet.

    He was going to find the kitchen, and find out if Hina had bought popsicles, and for _shame_ if she hadn't.  He padded out of the guest room in socks, pausing to note the airy space of the living room.  This was not the apartment she and Shingo had had before.  Things had happened while he'd been... broken.

    There was movement in the next room, so Ankh investigated and found that Hina was in the apartment's kitchen.

    She looked up and smiled.  "Ankh," she said, and hugged him.  Really, he told himself, she was clearly just keeping an eye on her kitchen because she didn't trust him with her refridgerator.  It was nothing for him to hug her back for, but he did anyway, slinging his right arm over her shoulders lazily, not putting so much effort into it that she'd think he was glad to see her or anything (he was ecstatic).

    She looked a little older, although Ankh couldn't tell by how much and wasn't even sure what gave him that impression.  He _had_ been aware while he'd been broken, he was sure of it, but that time now occupied his memories as little more than a jumble of fuzzy pictures and Eiji, Eiji, _Eiji_.  Ankh had no idea how much time had passed.

    Hina finished hugging him and pulled back, saying "I'll make you some breakfast, _please_ eat it before you get into the freezer," and Ankh nodded absently, sitting down at her kitchen table.

    "Shouldn't you be..." he waved vaguely.  "Someplace?  It's around noon, you were always someplace early afternoon."

    Hina grinned at him.  "I finished with school, and now I design clothes and I set my own hours," she said, sounding quite pleased with herself.  "It's been a little more than three years, by the way."

    "Ahh," was all Ankh said.  Enough for some things to change quite a lot, and for other things to not change much at all.  Like Eiji hanging his underwear in people's windows.  

    Considering he'd talked about his grandfather as the one to pass on that particular obsession, Ankh had a sneaking suspicion Eiji would still be doing it as an old man, even if he developed dementia and Ankh had to spoon feed him.  But at that point, anyone who didn't know better would think it was a new thing.  For some reason, the thought made Ankh grin.

    "Where is Eiji, anyway?" he asked.  "He cleaned up the bathroom, right?"

    Hina laughed with surprise, and it was a clear, clean sound.  "Oniichan helped him, yes," she said.  "Right now I think he's gone to visit Chiyoko-san."

    "Shingo should not have helped him," Ankh declared.  "When that idiot makes a mess, he should be held solely responsible for taking care of it unless it's life-threatening."  Hina laughed some more, and warmth welled up in Ankh's chest.

    She set some pancakes down in front of him and drizzled on some syrup.  "We're not exactly sure whether what you eat matters," she admitted.  "Eiji did all the research he could, but he said there were so many things he had to patch together because the Greeed were unique and nobody had tried to repair one before now.  But he's pretty sure that eating won't _hurt_ you."

    Ankh nodded and took a bite.  Hina watched him hesitantly.

    "Can you... taste it?" she asked softly.

    "Mmmmnghh," Ankh answered, and took another bite.  Hina grinned.

    Food was a little different, now.  Ankh couldn't quite explain it.  But it was better, somehow.  _Satisfying._   There was something just that little bit _more_ beyond the texture of the pancakes, the heat of them mingling with the cold of the syrup.

    "Kougami-san sent you an ice cream cake," Hina said, as he mopped up the last of the syrup.

    "I absolutely hate that man," Ankh responded cheerily.  "But I will take his cakes."  He had absolutely _never_ been in such a good mood.  When Eiji came back, carrying a bag of clothing more suited to Ankh's tastes, Ankh made him have a slice too.

    Well, okay, he totally shoved the first bite into Eiji's mouth, without warning him he was going to do it, but Eiji was just going to have to get used to him again anyway, right?  
=o=

    Eiji had to smile at Ankh's pure _energy_.  The (former?) Greeed seemed to be having a bout of giddiness brought on by being revived, if the facts that he kept turning everything on and hiding smiles when Eiji looked at him were any indication.

    He even seemed agreeable at the idea of having dinner at Cous Coussier, although when they actually got there and he saw the number of people who had shown up just to welcome him back, Ankh's shoulders hunched just slightly and his eyes widened in some alarm.  Chiyoko-san's whole figure lit up when she saw him.

    "Ankh-chan!" she declared, throwing her arms around him, and Ankh rolled his eyes to the ceiling, relaxing a little.  Eiji hid a laugh.  "I'm so happy," she said once she'd released him, dabbing at her eyes.  "Having you here again, having you home."

    She clapped firm but loving hands on his shoulders and steered him to the seat of honor, shoving him down into it and patting him on the back.  Ankh had gone slightly stiff.

    "Eiji-kun, Hina-chan, your seats are here," Chiyoko said, patting the chair backs on either side of him.  She pranced off back to the kitchen, and Ankh sent Eiji a half-hearted sneer that Eiji didn't believe at all.

    Shingo slid into the chair next to Hina's, which was mildly disconcerting since he and Ankh still wore the same face.  "How are you feeling?" he asked Ankh, which earned him Ankh's raised eyebrows, and he laughed.

    "The one time we looked each other in the eyes I was choking you," Ankh muttered across Hina.  Hina looked between them worriedly.

    Shingo shook his head with a smile and reached over to take Ankh's hand firmly.  "We'll talk about that later," he said, while Ankh stared at their hands.  "How are you feeling?"

    "Alive," Ankh said.

    "I'm glad," was the answer.

    Ankh clearly still didn't _entirely_ know how to react to being loved, much as he tried.  When Chiyoko pulled out her guitar and announced the intent to sing him "Happy Birthday" Eiji almost thought he would bolt.  Kougami, attending through video conference via Satonaka, happily led with his deep baritone.  The song blurred horribly on Ankh's name, what with Date 's "Ankooooo," Chiyoko's "Ankh-chaaan," Kougami and Satonaka's "Ankh-kuuuun" and everyone else's "Ankhuuuu," but given the way Ankh had buried his face in his hands at this point and seemed to be laughing Eiji thought things could have gone much worse.

    He seemed mildly relieved when the party finally broke up, although they caught a trace of a smile in the rearview mirror when he thought they weren't looking.

    Eiji had a brief argument with him about taking off his shoes before he climbed up into the loft bed.  "I know I never made you do it before, but it keeps the sheets cleaner."

    "Pfeh," Ankh finally said, and slipped them off his feet.

    "What do you think you'll want to do now?" Eiji asked, slipping on his night shirt.

    "Dunno," Ankh answered.  "Think I'll enjoy this desire until I find a new one."

    Eiji laughed as he settled in.  "Sounds like a plan."  He yawned.  "Goodnight, Ankh."

    Ankh stared at him in the dark for a long moment.

    Eiji was startled into sitting up by Ankh's weight hitting the bed.  "Ankh, what--?"  Ankh was staring at him with that intent hawk-eyed _look_ , shaking slightly.  Before Eiji could ask again what was going on, Ankh pressed an ear to his chest.  Eiji felt himself flush.

    He didn't know how long they stayed like that before the other's shoulders sagged in a sigh.  "I can hear it," he said.  "If I can hear your heart, that makes it real, right?"

    "Ankh?"

    "I keep thinking I'm going to wake up in the woods with a cracked core to find that this was all a happy delusion, and Maki killed you while I was out," Ankh said, and Eiji sighed with understanding, pulling him into a hug.

    "It's fine, Ankh," he said.  "It's all over."

    Ankh's thin frame suddenly gave a great shudder, and to his shock Eiji felt warm tears on his neck where Ankh had buried his face.  Ah, _mouu._   "Shh," he whispered, lying back down with the blond in his arms.  "Shhh."  Ankh clung to his chest like he was a raft in an endless sea, and cried, and cried, and cried.  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaaaaaaa ~~gawdthisisstupid~~ aaaaaaangssssssssTUH.
> 
> Anyway, it's kind of weird writing a story like this, having all the characters speaking in English because that's what you speak, and still feeling the need to acknowledge the way characters pronounce things like a person's name because they're all actually speaking in Japanese.
> 
> [Here, have a doodle of Ankh shoving ice cream cake into Eiji's face.](http://tmblr.co/ZCkdCryJMB5a)


	4. Chapter 4

    The next morning Eiji found that Ankh was still pressed into him, asleep but breathing heavy and deep.  He couldn't see Ankh's eyes- one was against Eiji's shirt while the other was hidden by curls, but there was an exhausted set to his mouth and dried tear tracks still along his cheeks.

    "Ankh," he murmured, and stroked his hair.  "It's okay if you want to stay in bed for a while, but I need to get up."  Ankh took a sharp breath as Eiji shifted out from under him, then grumbled and sank back into the sheets, mumbling something about idiot early risers.  Eiji smiled as he watched Ankh roll away toward the wall, patted his shoulder, and left for the kitchen.

    Hina was already making breakfast, and glanced over her shoulder to smile at his "Good morning."

    "Did you sleep well?" she asked.

    "Um," he said.  Eiji didn't really want to tell Hina that Ankh had suffered some kind of nervous breakdown, because he was quite sure that Ankh wouldn't be pleased with him saying so.  Post traumatic stress was one of those things that he could understand wanting to keep under wraps.  He didn't want to just outright lie to Hina, either, of course.

    Then Hina ruined it.  "Do you know why he was sleeping on top of your sheets?"

    Well, she didn't need all the details unless Ankh gave them.  "He seemed a little upset last night."

    Hina turned to him, eyes large with worry.  She and Shingo and Ankh all made the same face when they were upset.  "Why?  Was it the party?"

    Eiji sat down.  "I think, for him, everything that happened three years ago still feels like it happened just the other day."  Hina put a hand to her mouth.

    "Ankh," she whispered.  "Oh, Ankh.  Eiji-kun, do you think there's anything we can do?"

    Eiji shrugged.  "Give him time and be there for him," he said, which he felt gave all the explanation needed for why he'd let Ankh sleep on his bed.  "Finding a kind of normalcy helps."

    Hina gave him one of those looks that said _Oh, Eiji-kun, you're not just talking about Ankh here, are you?_ "We can do normalcy," she said, and struck a battle pose.  Eiji chuckled.

    "In the meantime," Eiji said, "Kougami wants his people to give Ankh a... sort of physical, although none of us are really sure what to expect.  I'm probably going to need some help talking him into it."

=o=

    "X-rays aren't going to show you anything anyway; I'm a Greeed," Ankh told Date irritably.  "You remember how that worked, don't you?"

    It had taken surprisingly little convincing, Eiji thought, although he still wasn't absolutely sure what Hina had whispered into Ankh's ear.  Ankh had relaxed visibly when he'd been told that Date would be in charge, though.

    "Sometimes it's what an X-ray _doesn't_ show that tells you something, Anko," Date said cheerfully.

    "It's _Ankh_ ," Ankh corrected, almost absently.  "And that makes about as much sense as you ever do."

    "Mm," Date answered, and shooed Eiji and Hina out of the X-ray room.

    Most of the tests were pretty benign.  Basic reflex tests, the X-rays, looking him over with some of the old tools they'd used before Doctor Maki's death, and a number of tests to assess Ankh's senses.

    Date glared at the result printouts for some time.  "The thing is," he told Ankh, "Your X-rays shouldn't show us _anything_.  They shouldn't pick you up at all."  He held the X-rays up to the light to show them.

    Ankh cocked his head.

    "His X-rays look like a human's, is that it?" Hina asked.  

    Date nodded.  "It could be that it's just that cell medals are very, very good at fooling medical equipment.  The Doctor's old instruments are picking up the same readings the technicians say they expect from a Greeed, but on the other hand, he passed all of the sense tests..."  He crossed his arms thoughtfully, pursing his lips.    "It's like you're somewhere _in between_ , Anko."

    Eiji frowned.  "And I guess you'd have to do something more invasive to find out exactly what that means, right?"

    "No," Ankh said.

    Date smiled at Ankh, then turned to Eiji and shrugged.  "That's what it would take."  He looked back to Ankh.  " _I_ won't do anything you don't want me to, Anko, but remember that you're not legally a person.  You may have to contend with other members of the Foundation on this--most things pertaining to the Greeed belong to Kougami himself and some of his scientists are going to try to take liberties with that fact.  Doctor Maki left behind some ambitious men, men who will do some crazy things for the sake of knowledge."

    Ankh snarled.  "They can try it if they don't care about their good health."

    "It won't come to that," Eiji told him.  "And we'll make sure they can't get away with anything pretty soon.  I'm going to talk to Kougami, sort things out, come up with some paperwork so you can move properly through human society."

    "And if Kougami decides he wants those tests in exchange for the paperwork?" Ankh challenged.

    Eiji stopped for a moment, realizing that this was an old argument.  When Ankh had been fully Greeed, Eiji had thought nothing of using cell medals to get what he wanted, hadn't really considered the fact that he was bargaining with bits of Ankh's _body_.  Ankh's desire for medals hadn't been any more selfish than a child's desire for food.

    "He'll have to ask for something else," Eiji said with conviction.  "I've done a lot for Kougami Foundation while working to restore you.  We won't be bargaining from a complete position of weakness."

    The look on Ankh's face was worth it.

    Date clapped his hands together.  "Well then," he said.  "Since we're still not sure if you need cell medals, or if you can just make do with eating, Anko, I want you to keep track of how you feel.  If you start to feel sick or weak, despite eating, get in contact with me right away, okay?"  He wrote a number out on a notepad and tore the page free.  Ankh took it gingerly.

    "With that, Anko, Eiji-kun, Hina-chan, I release you," Date said with a smile.  "Later."

=o=

    Tears were strange, Ankh decided.  He'd felt what he now recognized as their threatening many times while sharing Shingo's body, but he'd never actually _cried_ , not as he had the night before.

    And they'd _hurt_ , they'd taken him over somehow, they'd wracked his entire body for the better part of an hour.  Yet when he'd been too exhausted to continue, he'd felt _better_ for having cried, not worse.  It was a _purging_ sort of feeling.

    So why, now, was he considering climbing back into Eiji's bed?  The thought of more "Doctors" being out there, coming to-- to dissect him or stick needles into him-- it made him anxious, but Ankh knew it had nothing to do with why he wanted to burrow under the covers and reassure himself that Eiji was under there.

    "Ankh, I know you're still awake," Eiji's voice mumbled.  Ankh stiffened.  Eiji rolled over to look at him, throwing the covers aside.  "Come here," he said softly.  "It's okay."

    Ankh looked away, neck prickling.  He started to tell Eiji he didn't need to be comforted, but stopped because of the danger that Eiji would stop offering it then.

    "Ankh," Eiji murmured, and Ankh remembered the dead way Eiji had talked about a little girl once, how Eiji had once been so willing to throw everything away.  Ankh's feet slid to the floor almost against his will, and when he crossed the room he stumbled.  When he reached the bed, he nearly fell into Eiji's arms.

_Ahhh_ , but it was worth it.  Ankh had a warm, dark flash of what might have been a memory, pressing close against the skin of Eiji's hand, and snuggled agressively against Eiji's chest, fingers curling into Eiji's shirt.  He sighed, reveling in the sense of security and contentment.

    Eiji's cough had an odd undertone to it, like he was embarrassed, but Ankh couldn't bring himself to care.  It was already suddenly difficult to keep his eyes open.  He was dimly aware of Eiji pulling the covers over them both, and yawned.

    He thought Eiji's lips might have pressed against his brow, but Ankh couldn't be sure.  "Goodnight, Ankh," Eiji whispered into his hair, and this was the last thing Ankh was aware of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike previously, the next chapter is not currently completely written, so posting will probably slow down slightly.


End file.
